Match Thread: Cheltenham Town v Port Vale

[Howjy04]

Thanks

 

Going the game on Tuesday?

[blackdog]

Post a link I’d be interested in reading that

 

 

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Port Vale - Sentinel

6 hrs ·

Well that was dreadful.

Neil Aspin is big enough to defend himself, but this is just my two penn‘orth on the situation.

I don’t think any manager would expect to escape criticism after a 5-1 defeat, but let’s face it, blaming the manager ignores the much deeper issues at the club, issues which maybe could have been tackled if the club had been sold to Synectics Solutions last summer.

In my opinion the Vale have a good management team – Neil Aspin, Lee Nogan , Gary Brabin and John Rudge - doing their best to sort out the pig’s ear they inherited in October.

The club has been in decline ever since Rob Page decided he’d had enough 22 months ago, left for Northampton….and we all saw the experiment that followed.

Despite the overall decline, the Vale were actually in a worse situation when Aspin took over than now – admittedly it doesn’t feel like it after the Cheltenham game.

To put Aspin’s efforts into a bit more context. I asked him whether the wage bill was much higher coming out of the January transfer window. He estimated that it was actually lower than at the start of the transfer window.

Let’s see what happens in the summer and how much support the manager gets

I don’t think anyone is expecting the Vale to spend silly money in the summer, but they have made around £2.2m in transfer fees over the last two January transfer windows.

I still think the Vale will stay up this season (mainly because it’s two relegation places not four).

We can’t be complacent about it though. Phil Sherwin made a great point in our fans’ views section when he said Vale have played several teams below or around them since the turn of the year, and have looked worse than every single one.

This isn’t about slating the owner for the sake of it. I can only imagine the pressures of running a football club but I am sure it’s much harder to do than just write about.

He’s done some good things – for example bringing in Tom Sherratt who seems to be doing a great job with the community scheme. He appointed chief exec Colin Garlick who it seems to me does a good job within his budget. The much improved communication with supporters and last summer’s season ticket deals (which helped season-ticket sales go up last summer, despite relegation) are two examples of that.

I’ve just mentioned two people there, but I know there are lots of hard-working staff at the Vale who take pride in their job and care about this club.

One of the other things Norman got right was appointing Neil Aspin and bringing back John Rudge. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but mine is this is a very good management team trying to turn around a club which was heading for the rocks before they were appointed.

I fear we might have more days like Cheltenham to come, but nevertheless Aspin and his staff remain a huge asset to this club.

They are just my thoughts, from watching the Vale and dealing with the players and Aspin.

But my opinion is no more valid than the fans who pay to watch the Vale, including those who had to suffer that shocker at Cheltenham.

What’s your opinion? What's gone wrong at the Vale, why is a club mid-table in League One in May 2016 now in a relegation battle in League Two, and what is the solution?

But also, it must be pretty dispiriting for staff to read threads like this when it's not their fault if the teams ships five goals on a Saturday.

So, what does the club do well and where does it deserve praise?

Mike

 

Best I can do.....

[SourceOfTheTrent]

The more I think about it the more I suspect the Gunning affair was a moment of much greater significance than just a player leaving because the club didn't meet his demands and he had a better offer elsewhere. Let's be honest he was no world beater but we have missed him on the pitch, however, it strikes me his leaving has caused demoralization in the dressing room for whatever reason. Maybe the players observed what happened and think they'll be going the same way at the earliest opportunity? Maybe it told them the club aren't serious about investing in the team or staying in the league? Who knows what effect it's had but since the day Gunning left we've got worse and worse with almost all the same players. Whatever's wrong needs identifying and resolving rapidly because it doesn't make sense that so many players are performing so far below the levels they displayed in December. I didn't go yesterday but reading assessments from those who did plus watching the TV footage tells me it was Sunday League after 10 pints Saturday night stuff, some of the mistakes were absolutely dreadful.

 

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[Frank Mustard]

Going the game on Tuesday?

 

Yes thanks and I’m going to cherish every minute of it. At the rate we are going after Tuesday we’ll only have six home games left as a Football League Club.

[Mattholl]

Port Vale - Sentinel

6 hrs ·

Well that was dreadful.

Neil Aspin is big enough to defend himself, but this is just my two penn‘orth on the situation.

I don’t think any manager would expect to escape criticism after a 5-1 defeat, but let’s face it, blaming the manager ignores the much deeper issues at the club, issues which maybe could have been tackled if the club had been sold to Synectics Solutions last summer.

In my opinion the Vale have a good management team – Neil Aspin, Lee Nogan , Gary Brabin and John Rudge - doing their best to sort out the pig’s ear they inherited in October.

The club has been in decline ever since Rob Page decided he’d had enough 22 months ago, left for Northampton….and we all saw the experiment that followed.

Despite the overall decline, the Vale were actually in a worse situation when Aspin took over than now – admittedly it doesn’t feel like it after the Cheltenham game.

To put Aspin’s efforts into a bit more context. I asked him whether the wage bill was much higher coming out of the January transfer window. He estimated that it was actually lower than at the start of the transfer window.

Let’s see what happens in the summer and how much support the manager gets

I don’t think anyone is expecting the Vale to spend silly money in the summer, but they have made around £2.2m in transfer fees over the last two January transfer windows.

I still think the Vale will stay up this season (mainly because it’s two relegation places not four).

We can’t be complacent about it though. Phil Sherwin made a great point in our fans’ views section when he said Vale have played several teams below or around them since the turn of the year, and have looked worse than every single one.

This isn’t about slating the owner for the sake of it. I can only imagine the pressures of running a football club but I am sure it’s much harder to do than just write about.

He’s done some good things – for example bringing in Tom Sherratt who seems to be doing a great job with the community scheme. He appointed chief exec Colin Garlick who it seems to me does a good job within his budget. The much improved communication with supporters and last summer’s season ticket deals (which helped season-ticket sales go up last summer, despite relegation) are two examples of that.

I’ve just mentioned two people there, but I know there are lots of hard-working staff at the Vale who take pride in their job and care about this club.

One of the other things Norman got right was appointing Neil Aspin and bringing back John Rudge. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but mine is this is a very good management team trying to turn around a club which was heading for the rocks before they were appointed.

I fear we might have more days like Cheltenham to come, but nevertheless Aspin and his staff remain a huge asset to this club.

They are just my thoughts, from watching the Vale and dealing with the players and Aspin.

But my opinion is no more valid than the fans who pay to watch the Vale, including those who had to suffer that shocker at Cheltenham.

What’s your opinion? What's gone wrong at the Vale, why is a club mid-table in League One in May 2016 now in a relegation battle in League Two, and what is the solution?

But also, it must be pretty dispiriting for staff to read threads like this when it's not their fault if the teams ships five goals on a Saturday.

So, what does the club do well and where does it deserve praise?

Mike

 

Best I can do.....

 

Cheers, I’d be interested to see what Aspin himself says this week of the back of it, hopefully questions will be aimed at him and smurf

 

 

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[Davebrad]

Blackdog,

agree with some of your post, its considering our budget and position the best management team we could possibly get, but they train, devise the game plan, then pick the team...Aspins said if a player does well and works hard in training he will consider him for the first team, so does that mean that the 14 of sat's team all deserved to be picked, when 11 of them were either not bothered, not good enough, or let Cheltenhams players overwealm them?

If the players did not do what they were told and gave up which after the third goal that's what seemed to happen, he should drop them, shake them up put them in the reserves...these are professionals from the New Year they have not been fit for purpous...

[Jacko51]

No proof at all about the deal leaving him unpaid so let’s not go there.

 

If you are expecting an affidavit signed an blood in the presence of two witnesses you’re right. If you will accept the word of someone I’ve known for donkeys years with access to all the players then you’re wrong.

[Mattholl]

If you are expecting an affidavit signed an blood in the presence of two witnesses you’re right. If you will accept the word of someone I’ve known for donkeys years with access to all the players then you’re wrong.

 

Another rumour thats second hand like the Whitfield limited distance being part of his loan deal that some idiot was hawking on here previously. We sit with the players and families and Whitfield’s Dad said it’s twoddle. On here though it was from a great source and gospel

 

 

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[blackdog]

Another rumour thats second hand like the Whitfield limited distance being part of his loan deal that some idiot was hawking on here previously. We sit with the players and families and Whitfield’s Dad said it’s twoddle. On here though it was from a great source and gospel

 

 

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I can't be certain but I'm sure the story about Whitfield came from the club in the first instance.

[Hagrid]

I don’t know how many stats people are on here ( I’m sure the yer da’s of the forum will hate this post) but the analysis of the game yesterday by a analyst I follow is interesting.

 

I don’t know how much people know about Expected Goals (xG), but basically based on the chances we and Cheltenham created, you’d expect the game to end 2-2, with us edging it. There’s a lot to it but each shot is assigned a value from 0-1 based on how good of a chance it is, due to various factors (gk position, shot position, defenders position etc) and then each value is added up to give a final xG total. All our chances added up to 1.98, Cheltenham 1.6.

 

The fact Cheltenham scores 5 when the chances created suggested on average, if they replayed the game 100 time, they’d score 2 points to poor keeping, bad luck, and individual mistakes.

 

However, it appears we created chances (though a majority were at the end with the game dead) and were unlucky to concede 5.

 

Also, Gibbons is our most involved players in terms of attacking moves, then Worrall, then Pope.

 

I don’t know, I like this sort of stuff. I’m sure many don’t. Stats never tell the whole story but they can help.

[onestepatatime]

Help what Hagrid? Send us all to Sleep? 🤣

 

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[Hagrid]

Help what Hagrid? Send us all to Sleep?

 

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I have precious few hobbies

[Paul6754]

I don’t know how many stats people are on here ( I’m sure the yer da’s of the forum will hate this post) but the analysis of the game yesterday by a analyst I follow is interesting.

 

I don’t know how much people know about Expected Goals (xG), but basically based on the chances we and Cheltenham created, you’d expect the game to end 2-2, with us edging it. There’s a lot to it but each shot is assigned a value from 0-1 based on how good of a chance it is, due to various factors (gk position, shot position, defenders position etc) and then each value is added up to give a final xG total. All our chances added up to 1.98, Cheltenham 1.6.

 

The fact Cheltenham scores 5 when the chances created suggested on average, if they replayed the game 100 time, they’d score 2 points to poor keeping, bad luck, and individual mistakes.

 

However, it appears we created chances (though a majority were at the end with the game dead) and were unlucky to concede 5.

 

Also, Gibbons is our most involved players in terms of attacking moves, then Worrall, then Pope.

 

I don’t know, I like this sort of stuff. I’m sure many don’t. Stats never tell the whole story but they can help.

 

How I saw the game, the 5-1 score line flattered them. When the 3rd one went in vale packed in, keeper responsible for the first two. An unreliable keeeper puts the jitters in the rest of the team.